—s 


| 


WOMAN'S INTERNATIONAL LEAGUE 
| LECTURE BY 
DR. GEORGE W. NASMYTH 
MARCH 25th, 1919 


SUBJECT: - "Colonies and Rackward Areas," 


We are living in a very interesting period, The news 


today that Hungary has gone over to the Bolsheviki Revolution and 
has thrown in forces with revolutionary Russia is of immense sig- 
nificance because it brings the first break in the cordon that was 


established to prevent the spread of revolution, and it may mean 
that the Peace conference at Paris has delayed too long while it 


has 


been fightirg about the disposition of the left bank of the Rhine 
and the Saar Valley and Dalmatia and Fiume, and while it has been 
trying to decide whether any food should be allowed to go into the 
enemy countries, or the embargo should be lifted in order to allow 
taw materials to go in, and what method should he used to pay for 
these things - if it should be allowed. Starvation and unemployment 
have begun to break down all of southeastern Rurope, and unless the 
Peace Conference can move much more rapidly in the future than it has 
in the past, and decide some of these things and decide them right 
and very quickly get processes of peace established, - food supplies, 


raw material supplies, start the factories in operation, etc., - 
unless they can do that we may have that revolution extending to 
houmania, the Czecho-Slovak nation, Poland, and pessibly also to 
Germany, if a more statesmanlike course is not pursued there, on 


into 


Italy where economic conditions have been very bad, and imperialism 


on the part of the government has brought despair to the mass of 
people; - on into Spain where you have had this series Of Gr7Ses 


the past years, + into France - into England, where labor unrest 


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nows how far, and it is a race between the Wilson peace with 4 
eague of Nations based upon justice and a Bolshevist Hurope. 


I want to try to pic#ure to you, if I can, what has 


pis ay $s re Hii 4 : pit ba fil Pe Ae wae na ie ica y bss meee sh ee poe Diab ah Rel eas a eee S eS 
tid CaN aah ° that step by step this crocess be proceeding BVO 


the 
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tappened in the world war because it is important if we would try 
to understand the situation as a whole - if we are to formulate a 


policy of liberalism, a constructive policy for dealing with the 


new world situation. If we could have looked at the world pefore 

the war from far enough away to get a perspective - from the planet 
Mars or some place like that - we should have seen it all bristling 
With bavonets, every nation militaristic and imperialistic, the danger 


of aggression from neighboring nations leading each nation to 


€normous increases in its armaments, and this armament race leading 


to a breakdown and the war, aS all armament races inevitably end. 


I remember going through the countries of Furope at the 
time of the last wave of armaments, JI was in Germany in 1912 when 


they had a great preparedness agitation there, The agitation at 


that time was for an appropriation of §250,000,000, and an increase 
6f the standing army by 160,000 men, and the basis of the argument 

of the militarists was that this was a necessary defensive measure, 
The great slave peril on the east was threatening them, they were 
told, and therefore the German people had to consent to this enormous 
armament increase for purposes of self-defense, There was of course 
2 good deal of a fifigial provaganda mixed io Beas that ¢. Laremem Ger 


ce ing in visitors’ gallery of the Reichs 


g one day when a man 


whom I came to look upon afterwards as one of the moral heroes of 
the war stood up and said that his agitation about the slave peril 


was being artificially worked up by the krupp and other armament 
firms of Germany, anc when he was called to order by the vice- 


president of the Reichstag he turned on the vice-president and he 


said: "you too are a stockholder anda director gn the Krupp 


armament firm. The Kaiser, he had charged, owned a quarter of the 


stock, and he was cailed to order for bringing the Kaiser's name 


in’. 


Wevertheless there was enough of fear in the situation ~ the inter~ 


national situation - a nightmare of fears that brooded over all 


Burope, so: that the milicarists with the support of the great private 


armament firms got through their appropriation. 


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That preparedness agitation in Germany was followed by a 
preparedness agitation in France. JI happened to go to paris that 
Spring and found France in the throes of a great agitation over the 
three year conscription bill increasing the conscription in the army 
from two to three years adding fifty percent to the French standing 
army. ji went from there to England and found England in the midst 
of its great naval debate, The "two keels to one" policy was adopted 
as the result of that, and then I went to Russia and found a great 
preparedness agitation going on there. A law was put through for the 
building of Strategic railways down to the German frontier, increasing 
the Russian navy and adding 600,000 men to the Russian colors. 


In each of these countries the inerease of armaments in the 
neighboring country was held up as the reason for increasing the 
armament in thet country, so that the militarism and the imperialism 
of all the nations before the war was supported by the militarism and 
imperialism of the neighboring nation, The fear produced by armaments 
which from the point of view of peoples of those nations were for 
purposes of defense, lead to corresponding increases of armaments in 
the neighboring country, and those increases led to fear in turn, and 
you have a cumulative effect, That was the condition before the war,- 
each nation fearing its neighbor and arming for defense against its 
neighbor, that defensive armament being interpreted as a threat of 
aggression by the neighbor and resulting. in increases in that neighbor- 
ing nation, 


; Now with the Russian revolution a new situation appeared. 
The imperialism and the militarism of Russia collapsed. The fear of 
Rustria in regard to the great slave peril disappeared, fhe fear of 
Germany in regard to an invasion of the Tartars and cossacks and other 
things pictured to them as being associated with the great slave peril 
disappeared. The morale of the Austrian and German armies broke down, 


Now I wonder if you can see that situation looking at the 
world again from an outside point of view. Here were all these nations 
bracing each other up as far as their imperialism and militarism was 
concernéd, J remember hearing a story of a man who was driving a wagon 
with three horses attached to it. All of the horses were very thin and 
gaunt, and somebody asked him why he was driving three horses, and why 
he didn't take the middle horse out. "What", he said, "take out the 
middle horse and let the other two fall down?" Well, that was the 
situation in the world. If you had taken away any one of these imperial 
istic and militaristic nations, the others would have toppled over; 
they wouldn't have had this constant threat upon which to build up 
their militarism and imperialism, So with the collapse of Russian 
militarism and imperialism,* and the collapse of Austria Hungary 
militarism and imperialism, and with those dangers removed must come 
a collapse of [Italian militarism and imperialism because they no longer 
have the Austrian peril to fear, and a collapse of French imperialism 
and militarism because they nO longer have Germany to fear, There must 
come a new condition all over the world, with the governments turning 
their energies away from destructive purposes of armaments and pre- 
paration for war, with which they have been chiefly concerned in the 
past, and giving their attention in the future to questions of social 
legislation, meeting the needs of the people, concerning themselves 
with those vital things which the modern social conscience demands, 


Now if that new situation is recognized; if there is enough 
Sstatesmanship in the governments of the world, - that adjustment can 
be made, [It means disarmament; it means a Teague of Nations © a be- 
ginning of the organization of the world; it means the governments 
turning aside from those questions of national differences - armies 
and navies which have occupied from two-thirds to nine-tenths of all 
their energies and resources in the past, - turning aside from those 
negative non-productive purposes and concentrating their ‘energies in 
the future upon the great constructive problems of social legislation. 
If there is not enough statesmanship to recognize that new state of 
affairs that we have in the world as the result of the collapse of 
one of these great imperialistic and militaristic parties, and the 
resulting falling over of the other militarisms and imperialisms, and 
the entire transformation of the nature of the state and of the condi- 
tions of sovereignty as they have existed in the past, - if there is 
not enough statesmanship to recognize that new situation, then we shall 
have a spread of this condition that we see in eastern Hurope, with 


% came in the collapse of German wilitarism and imperialism, 


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the peoples in their despair of any statesmanship on the part of-the 
governments, in their despair at the moral bankruptcy of statesman 
trained in the old school, taking things into their own hands, and a 
spread of the revolution until we have a RBolshevist Rurope with which 
you will have to live on some terms or other, 


Well, that brings us to this great problem of imperialism 
because much of the armament in the world of the past has been built 
up to acquire or defend colonies - protectorates + concessions, 
Spheres of influence, markets, and there has been a kind of an 
Optical illusion in regard to the map of the world. Governments 
have poured out millions, yes hundreds of millions, in order to con- 
quer new colonies or new protectorates and spheres of influence, 
and there has been a general idea on the part of peoples of the 
nations that somehow or other the acquisition of colonies, the paint- 
ing of the map of your country or your empire over as much of the 
world as possible in red, meant an inerease of prosperity for your 
country; that somehow or other trade follows the flag; that the 
acquisition of new colonies and new spheres of influence was going to 
bring added wealth; - the larger the empire to which you belonged 
the more prosperous necessarily must its people be, and therefore 
@ll these added expenses for armaments and for conquest of colonies 
was justified. 


I remember at the time of our Spanish war how the farmens 
on the Ppacifie coast all felt that they were going to become enormously 
rich as the result of our annexation of the philippines. It seemed 
perfectly natural to suppose that as the result of getting these 
‘immensely rich islands in the Pacific the whole United States was 
going to be prosperous, and of course the pacific coast would benefit 
most of ald, and it was some time before they became disillusioned to 
the fact that no farmer became a single dollar richer but all of us 
a good deal poorer as the result of the added expenses of acquiring 
the Philippines. And so with the immense é¢xpansion of imperialism 
in Europe! The acquisition of Morocco by France has added enormously 
to the burdens of the french tax-payer. The acquisition of colonies 
by England has always been a source of expense, never a source of 
revenue for the nation, and yet this great optical illusion of the 
map has been so hypnotic in its effect that there has been almost _ 
universal belief that colonies and protectorate spheres of influence 
and added area for your country, - meant necessarily an economic gain 
and increased prosperity. 


It is difficult for us to realize how widespread the move- 
ment towards imperialism has been. Here are a few of the figures 
for example. The great era of imperialistic expansion was the 
twenty years from 1880 to 1900. All of africa was divided up in 
that time and all of the other unoccupied areas of the world. Here 
are some of the statistics at the end of that era of expanding 
imperialism. At the end of that time in 1900 Great Britain had 50 
colonies, The area of the mother country was only 120,000 square 
miles; the area of her colonies was eleven million and one-half 
Square miles. The population of the mother country was forty 
million people; the population of her colonies was three hundred 
farty-five million people. France had 33 colonées. Her area was 
204,000 square miles; the area of her colonies was three million 
and seven hundred forty thousand square miles, The population of 
France was thirty-eight million and one-half; the population of her 
colonies was fifty-six millions and one-half. Germany was a late~ 
comer in the game, She had only 13 colones. Her own area was 208,000 
square miles; her colonies = one million and twenty-seven thousand 
scuare miles, Germany's . population was fifty-two million at that 
time; the population of her colonies fourteen million. The only 
nation which had a smaller population in her colonies than in her 
evn country was Germany. , The Netherlands, even, had 12,000 square 
wiles in Holland; 782,000 square miles in colonies, five million 
veople in Holland; thirty-five million people in her colonies, 
portugal, + 36,000 miles in her own country; 800,000 miles in her 
colonies: five million portuguese at home, nine million people under 
portuguese domination in the colonies, and so on througgout. Italy 
had 110,000 square miles at home; 188,000 square miles of colonies; 
€&. population of thirty-one millions and a population of eight hundred 
and fifty thousand in colonies. That was really before [taly came in- 
to the imperialistic procession. After that time she annexed Tripoli 
and other areas in africa and caught up to the rest. 


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It was a universal disease of imperialism, based largel 
on this optical illusion of the map, = the conception that Bes sses 
of colonies, increase of area which you could paint red as belonging 
to your country, increased the prosperity and welfare of your people. 


; Norman Angel was the first economist to explode this fallac 
in his book - The ‘¢reat Illusion - examined from a scientific point of 
view the question as to whether colonies were profitable, whether 

War Was @ paying proposition as it was universally thought to be, 
whether indemnities were as profitable as they were supposed to be, 
and he proved conclusively in that book, which was translated into 

@ score languages and has had an enormous sale of nearly a million 
copies 411 over the world, that those fallacies; that colonies and 
things of that kind did not promote the welfare of a people and did 
not increase the prosperity of a nation. 


Why is it then that this expansion of imperialism - this 
competition for colonies went on? It was because even though the 
acquisition of colonies did not benefit a nation or increase the 
welfare of the people of a nation, it did benefit certain financial 
interests in the nation, When france took over Morocco the French 
people did not becone a single cent richer; ~ in fact’ they became 
@ great deal poorer. They had to pay increased expenses for main- 
taining an army of occupation’ and all sorts of things of that kind, 
but the credit Lyonnais, and the Rothschilds and the bankers of 
France got vaiuable iron mines in Morocco and got concessions for 
building railways and were able to lean money to the Sultan of 
Morocco at discounts which netted them tens of millions of dollars, 
Financial interests did profit enormously at the expense of the 

rench taxpayer - the French citizen. and so with Japan when she 
annexed Korea, The Japanese people did not become any richer because 
Korea was annexed, Their tax increased enormously and the burden be- 
came Oppressive almost to the breaking point, but Japanese bankers 

and Japanese railway interests, and Japanese financial interests, have 
been profiting enormously as the result of the annexation of Korea, 
and the new concessions that have come there, so that colonialism 

is a method by which certain predatory interests in a given country 
exploit the people of that same country through the increased taxation 
that they put upon them in order to protect their interests abroad 

and enable them to do this exploitation in the backward areas of the 
earth, 


Now that is not all there is to imperialism, and the 
question of colonies and backward races. With economic motives of 
this kind there are always mixed idealistic motives, sentimental 
forces, and it is the combination of economic and emotional forces 
that do the damage in our modern social problems. There has been in 
the first place the white man's burden, as it was called, - the appeal 
to go out and educate the people of the Philippines and to civilize 
toe peoples of Asia,, Ching, India, Africa, ete., and then there is 4 
legitimate economic motive, For example, with all the destructive 
criticism that has been made against the export of capital you find 
certain irresistible forces there. 


Here is the world needing more oil and more gasolene to 
run its aeroplanes and its automobiles and its tractors. Here are 
these oil wells in Mexico that have to be developed, How is that 
problem to be solved? you can't forbid capitalists from going out 
and developing these oil wells and these mines and all the other 
resources of the backward races. The problem is how to permit 
that economic process to go on which is necessary for the welfare 
of the human race without permitting at the same time the merciless 
exploitation of backward races, or the profiteering of these great 
financial powers, and the using of the financial power which their 
great profits give them to distort the political iife and the 
foreign policy of their countries - build up the great naval and 
military forces and then use those naval and military forces to 
advance and protect thein speculative interests in these areas, 


We had one most flagrant instance in the case of the 
Congo atrocities. Many of you probably heard Mr. E.D. Morrell, who 
is the secretary of the congo Reform Asscciation, when he came to 
this country to lecture against tae exploitation of the natives of 
the Congo under the corrupted administration of King Leopold of 


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Belgium. §0 great was that exploitation and so much did the profits 
of the Rubber companies depend upon the exploitation of the natives who 
were killed by the hundred thousands and mutilated and used up in this 
merciless process of exploitation that went on, that when that thing 
was exposed and the conscience of the world was brought to bear upon 
that Congo situation, the shares of stock in the Comgo companies 
which had been worth about a thousand dollars a share fell to a value 
of $25 a share, When those processes of merciless exploitation of 

the backward races were no longer possible, all of this profit dis-~- 
appeared, and you can imagine how bitterly Mr. Morrel was fought 

and the Congo Reform association was fought, and what tremendous 
pressure @ great finanetal power like that would bring upon the 
government, the Department of Poreiagn affairs and all the interests 
which control international policy, in order to protect enormous 
interests of that kind, — : 


; Something of the same situation bbtained in the diamond 
mines of South Africa and nearly all Englishmen are agreed today that 
the South African war was brourht on by those great diamond mine 
owners in order to prevent the interference of the boors of South 
Africa with the process of exploitation that they wanted to carry on, 
And so there have been the atrocities among the Indians of prazil 
and Peru and exploitation of this kind going on in China and asia 
wherever there is a great mass of unorganized labor unable to pro- 
tect itself, open to exploitation of this kind, and offering this 
Opportunity for tremendous profits, as long as these abuses can be 
kept from the light of publicity and social conscience. 


Well, the problem for the future then is how can this 
Situation be changed;- how can the unexploited natural resources of 
the world be brought into the use of humanity and at the same time 
these great abuses of the backward races of the world be vrevented? 
How can the exploitation of peoples just coming into the civilized 
life of the world be prevented? 


The League of Nations had developed the plan of mandatories 
to meet this problem, There were three possibilities. One was 
international administration of backward areas and backward races 
and of colonies, The second was the system of trustee nations or 
Mendatories, The third was a system that has obtained heretofore 
of national ownership just handing over colonies to the different 
nations. The system of international commissions is the ideal one, 
of course, but very difficult to apply especially without many pre- 
cedents to guide in the work, ‘you can imagine how difficult a task 
it would be if an international commission composed of, let us say 
English, French, portuguese, Italian, American, and German delegates 
should be entrusted with the task of administering the congo Basin 
area in Afsica or liesopotamia or some country like that. The differ- 
ence in national ideals, the difference of method in dealing with 
backward races, the difference in concerction of moral responsibility 
in regard to helpless races, - all would make it very difficult to 
have a unified policy or to get agreement in regard to things that 
ought to be done, and there would be the danger of such an inter- 
national commission breaking up and not being able to carry through 
things that would have to be done. 


tin view of the light therefore of anything like an inter- 
national school for colonial administration and common international 
ideals which do not yet exist but are rapidly coming into existence 
for dealing with backward races, this compromise plan of mandatories 
has been included in the draft of the League of Nations. Under the 
system of mandatories the colonies will be under international con- 
trol. They will belong to them or to the League of Nations, but 
they will be entrusted to certain definite nations to develop and 
to have the moral responsibility for the welfare of the peoples in 
those areas, 


Now there are certain safeguards that ought to be thrown 
around these mandatory powers of the League if they are to be en- 
during - if they are to be based upon justice, because it becomes 
more and more apparent that this treaty of peace that is being 
framed now can endure only as it is based upon justice - only as 
it is self-enforcing. 


She, 


. Take, for example, the question of Piume claimed by the 
Italians from strategic and military reasons but naturally belonging 
to the new Jugo-Slav nation, - practically their only great seaport. 
Suppose it is given to Italy against the wish of the majority of the 
population of Fiume and certainly against the passionate aspirations 
of all the people of the hinterland, upon whom the prosperity of Fiume . 
depends, - how long will #iume remain [Italian against the pressure of 
that great Jugo¢Slav nation around it and needing it vitally while 
Italy needs “it only from sentimental reasons. Well, it would last 
until the first great crisis came in [Italian affairs; until there was 
a great labor uprising or strike or revolution in Italy, and then in 
the midst of the Italian confusion the Jugo-Slav people would quietly 
take possession of their seaport city of piume, and unless the League 
of Nations is going to have an immende army prepared to see that every- 
one of its decisions all over the world is carried out for the next 
fifty or one hundred years, these questions are going to be settled 
in accordance with the wishes of the people immediately concerned and 
the vital interests of those people, and not according to imperialistic 
desires or sentimental interests of people with no vital interests 
there. So the treaty has to be self-enforcing. If you give Fiume 
to the Jugo-Slavs to whom it naturally belongs by racial and commercial 
interests, it will stay there no matter what becomes of the rest of the 
world and of the League of Nations. If you give Fiume to [taly, it 
will stay there only so long as Italy can sit on the lid and prevent 
the people from taking possession of it. ; 

And so with all the other problems of settlement. If they 

are based on justice they will stay settled, and if they are not 
based on justice they will Stay settled only so long as there is 
inilitary power enough in the world to hold them in place and sit on 
the lid, and with the tremendous changes going on every day that will 
not be very long, 


Now in regard to these mandatory nations and these mandates 
for colonies and backward races - what conditions can be laid down 
Which will assure their settlement on a basis of justice and therefore 
of permanent peace? The first thing that occurs to us as we study 
the situation is that these mandatory solutions that aré proposed are 
curiously like the secret treaties that were made during the war, In 
those secret treaties, for example, Italy was to have Dalmatia and 
Peume; control over Adbania, the city of Aviona, Guif of Adalia in 
Asia liinor, the Greek islands end Lytia in Africa, etc., etc.; Japan 
was to have the Islands of the pacific north of the equator, and also 
the Shantung Penninsula in China, England was to have Mesopotamia, 
The provisions of that Asia ]flinor treaty are especially interesting. 
Great Britain was to have the southern part of Mesopotamia with RBag- 
dad, and reserves for herself in Syria, the ports of Jaffa and Acre, 
Pranee was to receive the coast strip cf Syria, the; adensk (?) 
District and part of what is apparentiy the southern part of: Armenia, 
Russia was to have the northern part of Armenia and by agreement 
between France and England the territory in the zones between the 
French and English territories shail be formed into a confereration 
of Arabian governments or an independent arabian government, the zones 
of influence over which is herewith defined, etc, 


A most interesting situation has arisen in that con- 
nection, - 4 conflict apparently between the English and French over 
Syria and palestine, with Bngland trying to prevent France from 
getting too great an influence there that might mean, as her route 
to tndia has led apparently to a development of the Bnglish plan for 
encouraging the Hedjaz to become independent, - the Arabian people in 
that Penninsula Sinai, just sast of Heypt - and that encouragement 
by the English of arabian demands for independence with the purpose 
of limiting French control and-interest has had an unexpected reaction 
in that it has stimulated Heyptian demand for independence so that a 
revolution has been going on there in the past week, and has immensely 
stimulated.the movement for independence among the ]iohammedans of 
tndia, - a situation, I suppose, something like the very serious prob- 
lem that we are confronting in our southern states at the vresent 
time where the employers are inciting the negroes to refu#®® to join 
the white man's union as they call it. They are trying to oreak up 
the co-operation that now exists between white labor and negro labor 
in the mines, for example, of Birmingham, Alabama, and encouraging 


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the negro to split with the white man and sta . 

nd up for his own con- 
ception of Justice, with the result that a great race war is pending 
a the Suicidal policy that is being followed blindly by the capitalis. 
in order to split the combined forces of white and negro labor, 


Well, Something of the same blindness has been shown by 
these great imperialistic powers competing against each other to 
limit Spheres of influence and stirring up revolts and demands for 
independence which spread much further than they had intended when 
they originally began these demands, 


‘The first thing that strikes you in examining the plan for 
mandatories is that they are curiously like these secret treaties; 
that they are ways for putting into effect under the sanction of the 
League of Nations the agreements and the bargains that were made 
during the war in these secret treaties which are some of the most 
unashamed imperialistic deals that the world has ever known, 


if the system of mandates is to be a just one or as just as 
we can expect under the present condition of the governments of the 
world, and the forces that control them, modifications have got to 
be made in those secret treaties. Some of them are very clear, for 
example - the things that Russia was to have in Armenia, the upper 
part of Mesopotamia, etc., the City of Constantinople that was pro-' 
mised to Russia, or no longer claimed - Russian imperialism is dead, 
but in Syria which was to be just a French province much more attention 
has got to be paid to the wishes of the people concerned and their 
interests. In China much more attention has got to be paid to the 
future peace of the world than was involved in Simply handing over 
Chow, Shantung, etc., to the Japanese. The whole question of the 
secret treaties has got to be brought out into the light of day. and 
subjected to the power of the public opinion of the democracies of 
the world before any settlement that will be stable or that will 
help to secure the peace of the world can be reached. 


The second thing is that the mandates must be given for a 
limited term of years and nbt indefinitely or in perpetuity. If 
they are given for ten years at a time, let us say, then at the end 
of each ten years the nations which have the guardianship over these 
backward races can be called to account - can be asked to give an 
accounting of their trusteeship and there will be a court of appeal 
at least to the public opinion of the world against abuses and ex- 
ploitations that they might otherwise be tempted to allow, 


In the first place the nations entrusted with these mandates 
ought to be given definite tasks, For example, if Italy is given 
Albania as a mandatory she ought to be told that her task is to pre- 
pare the Abbanian people for self-government. If England is given 
Palestine, it ought to be with the definite understanding that she 
is to prepare a home for the Jews there, and so with all the other 
backward races of the world, They ought not to be handed over sizply 
with a carte blanche for exploitation, but they ought to be handed 
With definite tasks for which the nations will morally be responsible, 


In the fourth place there ought to be safeguards against 
colonial militarism, We have had some very ominous beginnings of 
colonial militarism during the war, Just recently two regiments of 
french negroes have been Sent to Odessa to fight against the Bol- 
sheviki,. That means that the capitalist class is using negro soldiers 
to fight against revolution, to fight against the workers - a very 
ominous thing, - one of those things that it seems incredible that 
government should be so shortsighted as to begin, because if you 
train in the use of arms the hundreds of millions of people of Africa, 
organize them and teach them military methods, you are preparing 
30me very serious times for the white colonics of south Africa and 
for all the rest of the world. the safety of the world depends upon 
not militarizing these backward races of the world, and on the 
other hand protecting them against militarization as well as pro- 
tecting them against exploitation by industrialism when it enters into 
these new areas - undeveloped areas of the world. 


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_, In the fifth place there ought to be enlightened:labor 
legislation to protect these backward races. If’ you think of the way 
our uns killed labor, for example, has been exploited, - anyone who 
goes down into the steel regions of Pennsylvania or the mining regions 
of the United States and studies the way in which our unskilled and 
unorganized laborer has been almost mercilessly exploited, and the 
suffering that has caused, and then thinks of the possihility in a 
country like China where great steel industries are JUeRAPOIsige in, 
where all these hundred millions of laborers are Subject to ex- 
ploitation, - the terrible abuses and misery that might be caused by 
an unscrupulous exploitation of great masses of pecple ,of that, kind, 
and the things that that would lead to, -- it is time for us to read 
again Edward Markham's - "Man with a Hoe" - in the light of what is 
happening in parts of BRurope today. If we have any regard whatever 
for the future of civilization in the world and welfare of the 
generations that are to.come after us, we have got to protect these 
peoples against exploitation by enlightened labor legislation, 


I have been reading with deepest interest the conclusions 
of the International Tabor and Socialist conference that has been 
meeting at Berne these past months while the peace conference has 
been meeting at Paris, and they have issued an international labor 
charter that is one of the most enlightened statesmanlike documents 
that I have found anywhere. They demand that the following minimum 
requirements which are already carried out in part in some countzies 
Shall be converted into a code of international law by the Teague of 
Nations on the conclusion of peace. Their first demand is that 
primary education should be compulsory in all countries and a system 
of technical education establisned. Higher education should be 
- established in all countries and be free and available for all, 
Capacity and aptitude should not be thwarted by the mere conditions 
‘in which a young person lives, Children under fifteen years of age 
Shall not be employed in industrial occupations. Then there is a 
geries of regulations concerning child labor. Third, the hours of. 
work for women workers - they shall not be employed at night; they 
Shall not exceed four hours on Saturday; the employer shall not 
give women work to do at nome after their regular day's work; women 
Shall not be employed in especially dangerous trades which are im- 
possible to make healthy, nor mines wither above or below ground; 
women shall not be allowed to work for ten weeks altogether before 
and after childbirth, six weeks of which'shell be taken after the 
confinement. In every country a system of maternity insurance shall 
be introduced providing compensation at least equal to the sickness 
insurance benefit payable in the country concerned. Women shall re- 
ceive the same pay as men for the same work; night work between the 
hours of 8:90 P.M, and 6:00 A.M. shall be prohibited by law, etc,, 
etc, Sixth, with a view to protection of health and prevention of 
accidents the daily hours of work shall be reduced below eight hours 
in dangerous trades; the use of poisonous :uuterials shall be pro- 
Nibsced in aliccases where it-is possipie. to procure substitutes for 
them, The use of white phosphorous in the manufacture of matches 
and of white lead in painting and decorating work both indoor and 
cutdoor shall be prohibited immediately. Railway cars of all countries 
must within five years be fitted with automatic couplings adapted 
to all cars, Seventh —- all laws and orders dealing with the pro- 
tection of workers shall apply in principle to home industries; social 
insurance laws shall be extended to home industries; home work shall. 
be prohibited ~ (a) in the case of work liable to give rise to serious 
injury to health or poisoning - (bd) in food industries including the 
making of bags and cardboard boxes for packing articles. of food. 
Highth - the workers shall have the right of free combination and 
association in all countries. Ninth - wmigration shall not be pro- 
hibited - (a) immigration shall not be prohibited in a general way. 
This rule shall not affect the rignt of any state to restrict 
immigration temporarily in a period of economic depression, nor to 
protect the workers of that country as well as the foreign immigrant 
workers. (bv) The right of any state to control immigration in order 
to protect the public health and to prohibit emigration for the time 
being. (c) The right of any state to require that the immigrant 
shall come up to a certain minimum standard in reading and writing 
his native language so as to maintain tne standard of popular 
education of the state in question, to enable labor legislation to 
pe effectively applied in the branches of industry in which the 
immigrants are employed. Tenth - in cases where the average earnings 
of the workers whether men or women are insufficient to provide a 


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proper standard of living, the government shall set up wages boards, 
on which employers and workers shall be equally represented, with the 
object of fixing legal minimum rates of wages. Eleventh - in order 
to reduce unemployment and to facilitate insurance against unemploy- 
ment, existing labor exchanges in every country shall be linked up 
in such @ manner that they can provide as far as possible prompt 

and complete information as regards the demand for the supply of 
labor; a system of unemployment insurance shall be set up in every 
country. Twelfth - all workers shall be insured by the state against 
industrial accidents, Thirteenth - a special international code of 
laws for the protection of seamen shall be established; this code 
shall be drawn up with the colleboration of the Seamen's ynions. 
Fourteenth - the enforcement of these provisions shall rest with 

the labor departments of each state and their industrial inspectors; 
the trade unions shall assist in the effective enforcement of the 
labor laws, Fifteenth - with a view to carrying out this treaty and 
a further promotion of international labor legislation, the con- 
tracting states shall appoint a permanent commission consisting in 
equal parts of the representatives of the states which are members 
of the League of Nations and of the International Trade union Peder- 
ation; this permanent commission shall co-operate with the inter- 
national labor office in Brazil and the International trade union 
¥ederation, | 


That is one of the most statesmanlike documents that has 
appeared during these months that the Peace conference has been 
meeting, and the necessity for international labor legislation of 
that kind will be increasingiv apparent as the labor movements be- 
come more powerful. At present, of course, the great obstacle to 
high labor standards is the competition of places where those 
Standards do not-prevail. When we try to prohibit child labor in 
Massachusetts or in Pennsylvania, we are met with the argument on 
the part of the employers that as long as child labor is permitted 
in the industries of the south they cannot meet the competition with- 
out child labor in the north, and the only way to answer that is to 
pronibit child labor in the south as well, and we have done that in 
the new revenue law after the child labor law Was declared un- 
constitutional, But the argument goes still further. -It is im- 
possible to maintain high standards of labor legislation in one 
country if child labor and night labor of women, exploitation by over 
work, etc., iS permitted in other countries, and so it becomes 
necessary to protect the health and the welfare of our own labor, 

Our working classes upon whom the productivity and therefore the 
progperity and welfare of the country depends. fit becomes necessary 

ta see that labor in other countries is protected against exploitation, 
so that international labor iegislation is one of the essential elemerts 
that must be included in mandatory provisions of the League of Nations, 


Sixth = is the principle of the open door. That is one 
great advantage, of course, that the mandatory system will have over 
a straight ownership system. If, for example, Japan takes the 
colonies that were Germany'ts in the Pacific Ocean - if she took them 
as her own colonies she would probably be justified in including 
them within her own tariff wall and preventing any other nation from 
trading there. If she takes them as a mandatory for the League of 
Wations, however, she will be under obligation - she ought to be under 
Obligation if the mandatory principle is framed fight - to permit the 
commerce of all nations to go into those islands on equal terms, 


Seventh and last comes the question of concessions, There 
we are up against a very difficult problem. All we can do perhaps 
now is to just outline the problem. Take for example the question of 
jesopotamia, There are oil wells in Mesopotamia rich enough to pay 
the whole cost of this war as far as England is concerned, for exampler 
tens of billions of dollars. To whom should that wealth go? There 
are three or four possibilities. [{t might conceivably go to the 
people who own that land at the present time. ft belongs to wandering 
arabs, Sheiks and Turkish governors, but it hardly seems to be a 
satisfactory solution. It might conceivably go to the trusts and 
the big business corporations that will exploit it. The ones that 
get in there and get a concession and buy up the land for $10 an acre 
or $0, Will be able to make tens and hundreds of miilioys of dollars 
from these oil wells, and that hardly seems to be a satiSfactory solu- 
tion in accord with our modern ideas in regard to profiteering, etc. 
It might conceivably go to the nation which 1s given a mandatory 
power, but that again is a moot question, 


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for constructive nt anata ensk eres E Leag of Nations 


4 é The question is too new in all its aspects to make it 
possible to frame a definite policy, but at least there are tremendous 
problems looming up on the horizon, of which Mesopotamia is a concrete 
illustration, that we ought to be studying and that the world will 
have to solve in the near future. 


I have tried to take a rapid survey of this whole 
question of colonies and backward races. the problems are tremendous, 
rhe provision of the League of peace covenant defining the mandatory 
principle 1S capable of working out into a constructive solution of 
this problem, or it is capable of being an instrument of abuse and 
exploitation and evil and friction in the world. one of. the essential 
features of it, however, is this. Just as the assigning of the North- 
vest territory to the Federal Government immensely strengthened that 
Tederal government when Virginia gave up its claim to the Northwest 
territory, and New york and connecticut and }Ifassachusetts and all the 
other states which had claimed that immense territory of the North- 
west gave over their claims to the federal government, it transferred 
immense economic interests from those competing states to the co- 
operating federation, and it immensely strengthened the United States, 
and enabled a larger area of co-operation and a higher patriotism than 
nerely state patriotism to grow up and have a powerful economic 
foundation, And so the control over these undeveloped areas and back- 
vard races of the world by a League of Nations, to which powerful 
financial interests will have to look for the defense of their inter- 
ests and their rights instead of looking back to their own governments 
aad to their own foreign offices which would inevitably lead to 
triction, - their being compelled to look to the League of Nations for 
their concessions and for protection of their legitimate interests, 
etc., will immensely strengthen the power of the League and will con- 
tribute very materially towards its growth and to a real world organi- 
“ation, 


“go that if these seven conditions that I have mentioned 
here as essential to a mandatory principle that will work for the 
bermanent peace of the world and for conditions of essential justice, 
are carried out, the question of colonies and backward races and the 
powers of mandatory principle that are included in the League of 
jations Covenant may turn out to be one of the most important and 
constructive parts of the document and of the work of tne Peace Con- 
ference. 


I am afraid this has been rather dry and technical and 
uninteresting, but if there is anybody that isn't exhausted with the 
subject so far and has any questions to ssk, f Will be glad to answer 
them in the time remaining. 


QUESTION - I would like to *sk in the matter of de- 
veloping the oil wells and turning over the profits to the League of 
--ations, - what woijild the ultimate disposal of profits be by the 
~eague of Nations? 


DR, NASMYTH - There are very impartant things that the 
Teague has to do. For example, the Danube river will be declared an 
international river and has to be dredged and its harbors improved, 
stc. Wo single nation can do that because all the nations will get 
the advantage of it. The League of Nations could do it just as the 
federal government improves the Mississippi river and other inter- 
state rivers in America. There will be tremendous irrigation work to 
he built in Mesopotamia. If the League of Nations should get an 
immense revenue from the oil wells in Mesopotamia and use that for 
puilding these great irrigation works as England has built irrigation 
works in Egypt, that would be a legitimate use to make of these 
sroceeds. There 2re immense tasks of that kind waiting to be done in 
che world, which will contribute not only to the weifare and pros- 
perity of those undeyeloped regions and backward races but to the 


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Peters OF the whole world, and the League of Nations could do those 
things with profit to humanity in a much better way than a single 
corporation could do it with profit to his own stockholders, 


QUESTION - Mesopotamia might feel that the major icy. or 
that ought to go to their own enrichment? : 


‘DR. NASMYTH - There are practically no people in Meso- 
potamia; it is almost a barren desert. It was of course one of the 
garden spots of the World while those irrigation systems were in 
existence, and then with the wars that raged between the Babylonians 
and the people of Nenevah and the Medes and persians, the govern- 
ment was broken down and irrigation systems went to ruin and the 
water ceased to come and the people died and starved to death, and 
it became a great sandy desert, but it is a wonderfully fertile 
country and can be restored again to one of the garden spots of the 
world, It is simply the jealousy and the rivalry of the great 
nations that has prevented the putting into effect plans that have 
been ready for half a century, in order to make that again one of 
the garden spots of the world. 


QUESTION - Has there been any plan to finance the League 
of Nations - any definite plan? 


DR. NASMYTH - It is provided in the covenant itself 
that each of the nations which are members of the Teague shall make 
contributions in the same proportion that they muke them to the 
Universal Postal Union, The postal Union at Berne has assigned 
portions of its expense to the United States, England, France, 
€tc., based upon the quantity of mail that is posted. Tt is 
really quite a convenient index; it depends on population - the 
more people the more letters written; it depends upon civilization, 
upon iiteracy, upon economic resources, etc., so it makes a rather 
convenient method of solving an otherwise very thorny problem, 


QUESTION - is that International Danube Commission still 
in existence? e 


DR, -NASMYTH ~ yes, that is a very fascinating study and 
it shows some essential principles of international administration. 
There were two international commissions of the Danube, - one was 
the Riverain Commission, composed of representatives of the six 
nations which live along the bank of the Danube. That was supposed 
to be the: permanent commission wnich would develop the Danube 
navigation and open it and expand its harbors, etc., and then there 
was another international commission composed of all the Huropean 
nations as well as these six living on the banks, which was to be 
only a temporary commission and have limited powers. The way it 
worked out was this, - that little commission of the six nations 
directly interdsted fought among themselves so much and were so 
jealous of each others powers that it never was able to do anything, 
and this other international commission which had disinterested 
nations as well as tne directly interested nations in its member- 
Ship, although it had little power and was supposed to be only a 
temporary commission, went ahead and dredgeec the river, removed 
the sand-bars and derelicts and shipwrecks, built lighthouses and 
made it a great navigable river, because that work had to be done 
even though they had no authority to do it, The superior working 
of a really international cormission instead of that narrow diractly 
interested Riverain Commission showed that that was the true 
principle, and then during the war that international commission 
kept on functioning and at present there are steamboats sailing up 
and down the Danube, and a battleship is threatening ta bombard 
Budapest because that international commission has been in existence, 


QUESTION - I wonder why the League of Nations didn't 
get some light from the administration of that? 


DR, NASMYTH - Well, it could have done so. It is simply 
the imperialistic greed in a large part based on this illusion of the 
map, and the desire to get territory for premier Hughes of Austr alia 


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and for Japan and other nations of that «ind, that has made it an 
impractical way at the present time; - not because it won't work but 
because the nations won't consent to it. 


There is a very interesting book by L.S. Woolf - "The 
Future of Constantinople", in which he proposed an international 
eommission to govern Constantinople, and he goes into the history 
of these two Danube comnissions to show the kind that will and 
will not work, 


QUESTION - How do you account for the fact that America 
has had so much difficulty in getting labor legislation thru? 


DR. NASMYTH - Even though we were so far removed from 
these storm centers of Hurope, even our nation before the war had 
to devote more than two thirds of its revenue for war purposes; it. 
was a part of the system of international anarchy in which we lived, 
Great debates went on in Congress over apvropriations for war and 
the army and navy, etc., etc., and very little time was left over 
for child labor legislation and social insurance, and things of that 
kind. 


QUESTION - Why did Germany lead in social legislation when 
she was developing her great military system? - 


DR. NASMYTH - The two were bound together. She could 
never have endured the tremendous strein of that military burden un- 
less she had distributed the burden and cared for the welfare of her 
people, i suppose Germany is the only country in the world where men 
and women were treated at least as well as cattle were. If she had 
neglected them the way England and America has in centers of great 
industrial unrest, she would never have endured that tremendous 
economic strain. In part,of course, the answer to the other 
question is the intense individualism of American social philosophy,- 
something that we have got to get over. It has been going through 
‘a process of concession during the war, but it still is Standing in 
the way of our making a real attempt to solve this tremendous prob- 
lem of unemployment. ; 


QUESTION - I was struck with that program you read of the 
Berne Conference. It seems to me almost all of those questions have 
been brought up by the social legislation league, - whatever that. 
association is, - and there doesn!t seem to be anything very new in 
that. 

DR. NASMYTH =- No, the new thing would be its application 
+o China and Africa and ean international standard of labor legislatinn- 
that would be the new thing - to protect workers in countries where 
they are fairly well organized. 


QUESTION - All this legislation would be applied to foreign 
countries but not at home*- lize missionary work. 


DR.NASMYTH - Well, there is always a tendency of course to 
see the mote in our brother's eye and neglect the beam in our own, 
hut the project here would be not to admit into international 
commerce products that were produced by child labor or violations 
of these things. Tney would be shut out from international trade 
instead of the present tariff system. | 


QUESTION - You mentioned last week about difficulties 
veing settled by economic pressure - is that to be included in the 
weague of Nations - to be resorted to first before the military -- 


DR. NASMYTH - That is one of the definite provisions. 
There is a very powerful erticle on the economic sanctions of the ; 
ysague, and what I am vorrying about is that that tremendous economic 
‘cower may be used to suppress revolutions, suppress democracy, that 
eoesn't happen to be the kind that we believe in - instead of being 
used for its legitimate purpose - to prevent war and to establisn the 
peace of the world, If it is used as an instrument of repression it 
will fail; if it is used as an instrument of peade it will succeed, 


UBSTION = Could it be used between Italy and the powers 
that it wishes to -- 


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Sate euaes broke out between the Jugo-Slavs and ealtane qe ee 
whereupon the ttalians stopped foodstuff from going into Serbia and , 
Austria, whereupon the allies stopped foodstuff going into Italy 
whereupon Italy immediately raised the blockade on the Slav nation 
rhe we raised the blockade on italy, It works quickly and sharply. 

he trouble 1s it has been working in the wrong direction; by shutting 
Ss food from Hungary we produce this Situation, If we continue 
uo oe out food from Germany and are governed by passions of war 
instead of statesmanlike i us i i 
cies Rea Baan rma cea taba we are using a very powerful 


* UBSTI toes ¥ 4 Tt % fe 2 : 
Peni ante BP eson ouami ee. ieee ete pe ve buy the oil from the in- 


DR. NASMYTH - Yes, - but suppose some trader goes in there 
with a handful of brass beads or something of that kind, : new See ae 
of a firearm or toy - and he buys an oil well for S10 worth: of 
trinkets, etc., that is going to produce $10,000,000 worth of oil -- 
is it socially the best policy to say that that is the best thing for 
the future of the world, or should we develop a new social policy in 
regard to these immense riches? they run up into forty billion 
dollars worth of wealth in iwesopotamia, and things of that kind. 

Snall we let a few people become so wealthy that they don't know what - 
to do with their wealth, while part of the world is starving to death, 
or shall we try to socially distribute that wealth? 


a QUESTION =- Those people would profit by it incidentally, 
wouldn't they, = in any case? : 


DR, NASMYTH - Oh yes, they would get a job at $2 a day in 
the 011 wells and have the benefits of modern civilization, and have 
tenements arising in their cities, ete. 
ren QUESTION = It is going back to national boundaries, isn't 

it - to limit it to Mesopotamia, - the idea of giving it over to 
the inhabjtants? 


DR. NASMYTH - Yes, 


QUESTION - Of course that doesn't mean that you would 
ruthlessly take it away from the inhabitants, 


DR, NASWYTH - Wo, but suppose we use it for the benefit 
of Mésopotamia and develop great irrigation systems there and 
public works of all kinds, and make that again a garden spot of the 
- world, and had great orchards and fruit trees 2nd publie libraries, 
and things of that kind, wouldn't that be a better way than to have 
the Mesopotamians having a nalf dozen chauffeurs and Packards and 
limousines driving around with their Little Bédouin children? 


QUESTION - No matter what way it is done, if it is done 
Monestly and squarely it is all right -- that would be the question 
that is the ultimate test anyway, wouldn't it? 


DR. NASMYTH - And that depends upon democracy focussing 
its attention upon them instead of leaving them to secret diplomacy 
and invisible government of powerful financial interests. 


QUESTION = Do you think this mandatory power hss any 
chance of being administered so it won't be a menace, according to 
the present covenant? 


: -DR. NASMYTH - Not if the present governments of the 
world were to continue in power indefinitely. The old order is 
enthroned in all the govdrnments represented in Paris, or nearly all, 
and imperialism is rampant. Narrow selfishness seems to be dominating 
the Conference, One or two delegations there pointing always to the 
unrest outside and the demands of the democratic forces of the world, 
seem to be the only check on shortesighted:suicidal policies, but 
this unrest itself is going to produce sweeping changes. It may come 
by a process of peaceful evolution, - I nope it will, it ought to 
in England where they have channels of political democracy through 
-hich it can flow, in that case if the labor party of England comes 
iato power as it quite possibly may in the next election, a few months 


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from now, it has a very clear policy toward Ireland, towards Egypt, 
and towards India, The mandatory principle would be administered on 
the hignest plain, 1 believe, by the British labor party if it took 
possession of the government of England. 


QUESTION -~ Would it give the Irish the government that 
taey want - not simply home rule but what they are askim for now? 


DR. NASMYTH »- Yes. 
QUESTION - And Bgypt? 
DR. NASWYTH - Egypt and India. 


QUESTION = Some countries now have so many colonies, and if 
in the future no country is to be allowed to have any new colonies, 
“on't there be trouble? Isn't there going to be friction between 
tiose that have fewer colonies and those that have more control? 


DR, NASMYTH - You mean the danger of revolution and uprising 
in these colonies themselves? 


QUESTION - No, I mean among the governments? 


DR. NASMYTH - Yes, there will be as long as peoples believe 
that the possession of colonies gives advantage to the people as a 
whole, When they can explode that great illusion and show that it 
doesn't give adgantage to the people as a whole but gives advantage 
suly to certain big interests which use them as opportunities for 
exoloiting the people, there won't be such a great demand for colonies 
o1 the part of democracy. } 


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